Subcontinent India juts our from continental Asia and is two-thirds surrounded by water - the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the Bay of Bengal. This vast and heavily populated land is divided into 28 states and seven union territories: As Timeless India shows, the country is geographically diverse - from the high, remote Himalayan mountain range of the north, to the dry plains of central and eastern India, the great Thar desert in the west, and the palm-fringed beaches of the south. Equally Indians themselves show great contrasts, the vast riches of the old rulers - the sultans and maharajahs - hich lingers on through their magnificantly extravagant architecture, and the abject poor who have nothing.